Help me with my Brick

[Synpax]

Hi,

I posted a while back about a problem I was having and am, again, at a
loggerhead. First, system specs:

System Specs
===================
CPU: AMD Tbird 1.4 Ghz 266 FSB
MB: Asus A7M266 Bios 1.004
Memory: Crucial 256 PC2100 /w ECC
Video: NVidia Geforce 2 Ultra
Sound: Hercules Game Theatre XP
HD: 2 IBM Deskstar, 20 gig and 30 gig
CPU Fan: Thermaltake Super Orb
Case: Lian Li PC-70
Power Supply: 400 Watts

---
When I first assembled the machine, I didn't put any thermal grease between
the CPU and fan. It seemed to work OK, but when I got it close to the full
bus speed (266), the machine conked out. This was either because of heating
(something the grease would fix) or bad ram.

I decided that I was going to try to use some thermal grease. But instead of
just applying the grease to the CPU core like I was suppose to, I covered
the entire surface of the CPU. When I tried to start the machine up, all I
got was a black screen, no text, with no startup beeps.

Following the advice of some on this board, I tried to clean the CPU with
alcohol and a toothbrush. After removing all visbable grease, I gave it
another try and still no luck. I then ordered another CPU.

Today, that other CPU came and I installed it. No improvement.

This indicates that something is wrong with the motherboard and that I may
have broken it. The reason I think I may have broke it is because to get the
fan onto the CPU seat, I've had to bend the capacitors behind it a little
bit. They have been sort of scraped a little by the CPU fan. But the system
worked fine until I took that last step in applying the grease.

So, I can either figure out how to fix the system or buy a new MBoard (and
probable a new fan and shim that won't cause any problems with the board).
Any recommendations on a new board? Maybe one of the AMD 761 chipsets rather
than the Via one.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Matt Braynard

 

[Guest]

geeze dude.. aren't you supposed to be easy on these computer dealie's? anyway..
the new sis 735 chipset is out, but the ABIT kg7 should be here soon too...


I always forget to sign stuff

 

[o1die]

If you still have the motherboard, I would try it again. Remove the board and re-install all your cards. Put a tiny dab of thermal grease on the cpu core. If necessary, try a different heatsink. I have even bent my board to get it to fit in one of those cheap micro atx cases (had to mount the cd-rom against the capacitors), and it still worked.

 

[Guest]

go with the best. MSI ms-6380. Has amd 760 chipset. very stable and a tomshardware baseline board that others are compared to.